Demolition man: Treasures planted on 'Bid and Destroy' show

Sunday

Oct 8, 2017 at 3:15 AM

Elizabeth Dinan

A Fremont demolition contractor, who starred in the National Geographic show "Bid and Destroy," said most of the treasures the show portrayed as found in buildings, before he knocked them down, were planted there by the show's producers.

The 12-episode series features Lee Danley, owner of Danley Demolition, while he bids on demolition jobs and his employee later knocks them down. After the bids, and before the demolitions, a co-star searches the properties for valuables to salvage.

"Treasure hunting with bulldozers," is one of the slogans for the show, which was filmed over six months in 2012 and still airs on the National Geographic Network. During the episodes, the show's co-star picker is seen finding a World War II enigma machine appraised for $100,000, high-end vehicles and valuable jewelry. The picker is portrayed as Danley's business partner, but he said that's not true.

Most of it, Danley said last week, was "fake news."

Danley said he was disappointed to learn Bid and Destroy, and similar reality shows, are fabricated, but he couldn't talk about it until this month when his "thick contract" expired.

"What we couldn’t tell you until our contract was expired is that almost everything we found was planted, including and especially the cipher (enigma) machine," he said. "We really do find neat stuff. Why they had to make it bigger and better, I don't know."

Asked to comment about Danley's allegations, Jennifer DeGuzman, vice president of communications for National Geographic, told Seacoast Sunday that Bid and Destroy was produced by an independent production company, not National Geographic. She did not provide further comment.

Bid and Destroy is described as showing the "Danley demolition crew (as it) bids for old properties which are up for demolition so they could search the property for hidden treasures left behind." Danley owns the company with his wife Rita and daughter Gina, but the co-star picker is not part of the "Danley demolition crew."

"We didn’t know it was going to all be fake," Danley said last week. "We were misled from the very beginning as to how the show would be laid out, who would be doing what, and how (the picker) fit in. For that reason, we decided not to continue the filming."

The co-star picker, who is shown making the valuable finds, did not return phone and email messages seeking his comment.

"There were things that were placed that we truly did find in previous jobs, took from our shop and planted in the filmed episodes, but the bulk of the items, especially the extraordinary items like the cipher, Tom Brady’s rings, the motorcycle behind the bushes, (were) all planted," Danley said.

The cipher machine is featured in an episode called "Farm House Fortune" where the rare decoder, that resembles a typewriter, is portrayed as abandoned in a building about to be demolished. In an online Bid and Destroy Facts list, it's noted "by the end of the war the German's (sic) either destroyed or buried their Enigma machines so that recovered machines couldn't help advance their enemies."

Bid and Destroy showed the rare machine being appraised by an antique dealer for $100,000, if sold at a "high end military auction."

The "Tom Brady rings" were shown during episode 3, "Home Run House," where they were depicted as found in a safe inside a fire-damaged Auburn home. While the "2001 Patriots Super Bowl" rings were declared reproductions by an appraiser during the episode, several other sports collectibles shown as found in the same house were appraised for a combined $25,000.

A 1973 Harley-Davidson Ironhead sportster is depicted as found in some brush in episode 1 titled "The Toilet Farm." In that episode, Danley wins a bid to demolish a 19th century boarding house in Manchester for $10,000 and the picker is shown finding the collectable motorcycle. A dealer later says the Harley is worth $7,000 or $8,000 fully restored and makes a $1,500 offer. Also shown as found inside are sterling salt and pepper shakers on a top kitchen shelf and antique teddy bear makeup kit in a pile of toilets, for which an antique dealer offers $5,000.

In episode 10, named "Million Dollar Mansion," Danley is shown bidding for the demolition of a 1967 waterfront home in New Castle. The owner, "Rick," paid $16,000 for the home to be demolished and was filmed telling the picker that a gold pirate coin was lost inside. Using a metal detector, the picker and a sidekick find the gold coin under a baseboard. The show's appraiser estimated the coin was worth $2,200 and an old pinball machine, also shown as found in the New Castle home, was valued at $600 to $700.

In an episode called "Cops, Robbers and Rewards," Danley wins a $6,000 sealed bid to demolish a building at the University of New Hampshire, shown with a sign reading "Rice House" and described as an old police station. He underbid the next lowest bidder by $2,000 and said during the episode that he did so to maintain his relationship with the university. The pickers are shown finding a 1927 movie camera in the attic they later sell to a collector for $100. In the basement they're shown finding stuffed animals they tear open to reveal a pearl necklace and a diamond ring sewn inside. An appraiser later says they're worth a combined $6,000.

Danley declined to go into specific details about each episode, but in summary said, "It's all hype."

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